Balanced and Fulfilling

Earlier this summer, my daughter and son-in-law came to Alaska for a visit. We greatly enjoyed our time with them. They joined the rest of our family as we hiked a glacier, visited a waterfall, hiked up and sled down Flattop (I have videos), played yard games, worshiped together in church, ate at Moose's Tooth, and many other delights and adventures. It was a week full of time together.

A day twenty-nine years before led to that week. In October of 1993, I met Vonda Kay. A couple of weeks after that day, we went on our first official date and 20 months later, we promised before God and witnesses to love and commit to one another until death parts us. Second only to my decision to follow Christ, my decision to propose and mean it is the best decision I have made.

Admittedly, I take marriage very seriously. Marriage was God's idea for men and women. When a man and woman feel the strong romantic pull and "just know" they belong together, marriage is the way to go. Marriage is not the path for everyone, but it is the correct path for those who desire to share life with another person in a committed romantic relationship.

Paul, a single adult who committed to a life of celibacy for the sole purpose of being able to focus exclusively on his ministry, advocated for some to do the same. Then, in recognition of the fact that what is good for one is not always good for all, he wrote . . .

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1 Corinthians 7:9 (MSG)
But if they can’t manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.

Don't misunderstand Paul. He was not saying that marriage is all about sex. (Marriage includes so much more.) He was, however, explaining that the Christian who plans on engaging in a sexual relationship must do so within the God-designed marriage covenant.

Earlier in the same chapter of Corinthians, Paul explains the proper view of sex within marriage.

1 Corinthians 7:2-6 (MSG)
It’s good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband. Sexual drives are strong, but marriage is strong enough to contain them and provide for a balanced and fulfilling sexual life in a world of sexual disorder. The marriage bed must be a place of mutuality—the husband seeking to satisfy his wife, the wife seeking to satisfy her husband. Marriage is not a place to “stand up for your rights.” Marriage is a decision to serve the other, whether in bed or out. Abstaining from sex is permissible for a period of time if you both agree to it, and if it’s for the purposes of prayer and fasting—but only for such times. Then come back together again. Satan has an ingenious way of tempting us when we least expect it. I’m not, understand, commanding these periods of abstinence—only providing my best counsel if you should choose them.

In the book of Genesis, we read how God created all things in an organized (not chaotic) fashion. Too often people take the created gift of sex and use it in a chaotic fashion. Let not that be true for you. God loves the world and, therefore, provides good things for us; and, in providing, He establishes protective guidelines and plans. We do well to live within those.

#ordinarylives